


The Start of a Beautiful Friendship

by Leni



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Xena: Warrior Princess
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-20
Updated: 2015-09-20
Packaged: 2018-04-22 12:27:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4835324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leni/pseuds/Leni
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Your potions are a disaster, and all the fancy wand-work won't mean a thing if you can't convince people to trust you." Smiling with all the innocence in the world, Gabrielle pointed at herself. "<i>I'm</i> trustworthy. People like me."</p><p>"Right now, I really don't."</p><p> </p><p>Or, the one where Gabrielle asks to come along.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Start of a Beautiful Friendship

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tigriswolf](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tigriswolf/gifts).



> Written for TigrisWolf at [Comment Fic](http://comment-fic.livejournal.com/655813.html?thread=88121797#t88121797). Prompt: **Xena: Warrior Princess, Xena/Gabrielle, Hogwarts AU.**
> 
> (Um. Not very 'shippy, I'm afraid.)

Outside the castle, Xena could believe that it was two years ago and she was still a Seventh Year at Hogwarts with a home waiting for her in the summer and a loving family that kept their owls busy with daily letters. She had been looking forward to joining her older brother's business, eager to start life as an adult despite the whispers of war and the nameless man rising as the new lord of darkness.

But Xena had been too young to care, when life had held so much for the most promising Gryffindor Head Girl since Lily Evans.

Then it had happened.

A ten-year-old boy and his father in a train station. A Muggle terrorist act against that place. A bomb. A fire. A broken family. Dozens had died, but the Muggles had had it coming, for their shortcomings handling their own trash. Only one had been worth grieving over.

Only the boy whose senseless death she'd sworn to avenge.

Lyceus's death had changed everything.

And yet, two years later, she could almost pretend nothing had happened. Once again, Xena was back at Wizarding School, and yet again she was contemplating what her life would be like once she left this place behind.

"Hey!"

Xena sighed. Not this girl again. She could try an invisibility spell, but Gabrielle would just run her down somewhere else. Hufflepuffs were supposed to be timid and at their best at social occasions, when they could rely on each other for support. Gabrielle had never been notified of the first, and as for the second, she seemed to believe that Xena was like her other friends.

Even before her brief stint as a Death Eater, no one had mistaken Xena for the patient, supportive kind.

"No."

The blonde stopped a few steps away, blinking her large blue eyes in confusion. "But you don't know what I want."

"No," Xena repeated, "you're not coming along with me after the Leaving Feast tomorrow."

She expected a pout. Perhaps a show of stubborn bravado. But the girl _was_ a Hufflepuff, not a Gryffindor, so she sat down to chip away at the problem. Persistent lot, the 'Puffs. "You won't go back to your town," she told Xena. "You've been lying to everyone from Dumbledore to the Fat Lady."

Xena doubted the old professor was deceived at all. There was always that twinkle in his eye when he spoke of her new chance at freedom, and he _had_ given her that vial of phoenix tears. But Gabrielle had no way to know that. "You'll tell on me?"

There was a reason everybody at Hogwarts avoided her, and it had little to do with the vile truth stamped on her left forearm. It was the way Xena saw all of them as potential victims, even if she wouldn't be their killer anymore, and no matter how many times Dumbledore had vouched for her in the last year, no one could look at her and dismiss the threat.

Except this girl.

"Of course not," Gabrielle said, and she even rolled her eyes at the idea. "But you'll need help."

"I can manage."

The look on the younger girls' face verged on amusement. "Your potions are a disaster, and all the fancy wand-work won't mean a thing if you can't convince people to trust you." Smiling with all the innocence in the world, she pointed at herself. " _I'm_ trustworthy. People like me."

"Right now, I really don't."

This time she did get a pout. 

"It will be dangerous," Xena found herself saying what she hadn't admitted out loud to another soul. Perhaps the girl was right, and people couldn't wait to tell her their secrets. "You can't sniff out Death Eaters just by shoving up their sleeves-" she did as said, expecting Gabrielle to reel back in horror. The girl instead leaned in, curious as she took in the rough design marking Xena's skin. It was Xena who drew her arm away, covering it again with a sharp movement. "His followers could be anywhere, and you don't want to cross them. Best case scenario, they'll hit you with an Unforgivable and perhaps have enough mercy to leave your body for your family to bury."

"And the worst?"

"They'll tell their lord." 

Xena closed her eyes, remembering the time she and others had been summoned to witness the execution of an Auror - and his entire family. There'd been a boy, a grandson. Younger than Lyceus had been. Xena had broken ranks to try to cover him. She'd been too late, of course, the green light had snuffed out the kid's life before she'd made more than two steps; but the others had known that she wasn't one of them anymore. In the beginning, she wondered why she hadn't died that night; later she'd realized they hadn't expected her to survive the barrel of Cruciatus they'd all put her under while their lord laughed at her foolishness. 

Nightmares often came with that laughter in the background. 

Xena fisted her hands in order to repress a shiver. "You don't want Voldemort to be aware of your existence."

Gabrielle did cringe at that name, but she didn't ask that Xena refrained from mentioning it.

Brave girl.

"He's aware of yours," she pointed out.

"Because I practically begged him to take me in." 

Another thing very few people knew. Most were taken by the idea of a powerful young witch grieving a beloved brother's death, and the dark lord who'd taken advantage of her moment of weakness to add her to his forces. It delighted them to believe that the true strength of a Gryffindor's character had shone through in the end, and that she'd walked away because it was the right thing to do. 

In that tale, there was no place for the regrets tearing at her, or even a hint of the ever-present temptation to heed the calling from the Mark and return to the winning side.

The people needed their heroes, Dumbledore had explained, so Xena had kept her head low and let everybody think as they would. They feared and respected her. That meant that she would never be welcomed with smiles and open arms. but they hadn't locked her up in Azkaban.

That had been enough. More than she'd expected, really.

But Gabrielle kept seeking her out, and even now she could see that the younger girl didn't understand. If she took Gabrielle along, people wouldn't think better of her. They'd think less of Gabrielle. "You have a good life." In the last weeks she'd paid attention to gossip when the talk had turned to the cheery Hufflepuff. Loving parents, a duo of older sisters who kept an indulgent eye on her, and probably an engagement to a boy from a good family in the near future. "You go on with it. Leave the war to those who cannot walk away."

The girl shook her head. "But I don't want that life!" she said with feeling. "I want to be like you."

Xena snorted. "Alone and bitter?"

Gabrielle met her eye solemnly. "A warrior."

Xena bristled at that. She, a warrior? A coward, more like. Couldn't even face her own mother. A forgotten daughter, a reviled sister.... "You don't know what you're talking about," she spat, then took a deep breath when she noticed Gabrielle on the brink of tears. There was no use in upsetting the girl, she reminded herself. "I'm leaving tonight, anyway." Before any student had permission to leave the school. "Goodbye, Gabrielle."

With that, she shot to her feet and strode away.

She didn't look back to see Gabrielle's expression turn into one of resolution.

Perhaps if she had, she wouldn't have been so shocked when she discovered the girl had followed her after all.

 

The End  
20/09/15


End file.
